


Tale as Old as Time

by DecemberKat



Series: Book of Rachel [2]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Babies, F/M, Fatherhood, Fluff and Angst, Mostly Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-28
Updated: 2020-04-28
Packaged: 2021-03-01 22:41:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23884669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DecemberKat/pseuds/DecemberKat
Summary: Luther thinks back on the changes in his life over the past year
Relationships: Luther Hargreeves/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Book of Rachel [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720552
Kudos: 9





	Tale as Old as Time

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this earlier but wasn't 100% happy with it. But here it is again!

It amazed him still how much Rachel felt comfortable around him. She didn’t flinch when he touched her. On the contrary, she leaned into his touch like a flower soaking up the last few rays of sunshine before nightfall. The awkward bulk of his shoulders didn’t seem to bother her, nor did the little patches of skin and hair that poked through his gloves despite his best efforts, or the odd, inhuman look of his fingernails against her tanned skin. 

Even now, with their three-week-old infant sleeping in the next room, there was a part of him that refused to believe that this was real. He gently shifted himself over to stare at Rachel’s sleeping face scrunched up against the pillow and thought back to months prior.

“Luther, we have to talk.” Rachel stood at the doorway to her bedroom. Luther jolted out of his painting haze and turned. She’d been more tired lately, needier than she’d been, even for someone so naturally affectionate as she already was.

“What’s wrong?” Rachel walked over to sit down on her bed and patted the space next to her.

“You should probably sit down.” Luther immediately dropped his charcoal and went to sit next to his girlfriend. Rachel leaned into him, as she so often did, but still, she seemed distant, almost anxious.

“Rachel, you’re scaring me,” he admitted. “What’s going on?” After a moment, Rachel told him.

“I’m pregnant, Luther,” Luther’s jaw dropped open as he went shock-still. Pregnant? He was going to be a father. His thoughts raced as Rachel stared at him, waiting for a reaction. “Luther, please say something. Anything.”

“How far along?” was the only thing he could think to say. His stomach fell through the floor as Rachel’s smile dropped from her lips. He hadn’t meant to disappoint her with his reaction, but something deep down refused to think he could ever spark the beginning to something as wonderful as her child.

“The doctor said maybe two and a half months. I want to keep it. Are you... okay?” Luther nodded. The initial shock had finally worn off and the news was finally sinking in. He was going to be a father.

“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I just… what if the baby comes out… looking like me?” Images of a squalling, deformed, hairy infant flashed through his mind, of nurses and doctors gasping in horror.

“Then it’ll come out looking like the man I love” Rachel broke him out of his thoughts. “Luther, I’m not afraid to have your child. Believe it or not, I want to. You’re a good man, and you’re going to be a wonderful father.” Luther smiled, tears in his eyes. Cautiously he moved his hand over Rachel’s abdomen. She wasn’t showing yet, but the gesture gave her butterflies nonetheless.

“We’re going to be parents!” Luther whispered excitedly. 

An infant cry shook Luther out of his thoughts. Rachel groaned and blinked sleepily as she prepared to get up.

“I got this one,” Luther said quietly, leaning over to kiss her. “Go back to sleep.” Rachel grinned and snuggled back under the covers.

“Have I mentioned I love you in the last couple hours?” she teased sleepily. Luther chuckled and kissed her one last time before heading towards his son’s room. 

“Hey, buddy,” Luther cooed as he picked up the squalling infant. “You hungry? C’mere, buddy, let’s go grab you something to eat.” Baby in his arms, Luther headed downstairs to the kitchen. He grabbed a bottle out of the fridge and ran it under warm water in the sink to warm it up before testing on a clear patch of skin on his wrist. Arthur quieted immediately when he latched onto rubber nipple of the bottle, staring up at his father contentedly with his big brown eyes that looked so much like his mother’s. He did, in fact, mostly take after his mother’s stereotypical Middle Eastern coloring for the most part, though Luther still saw himself in the slight coarseness of the baby’s skin, which he prayed to any god that would listen wouldn’t get worse as his son got older. 

For now, though, he was content to simply stand in his family’s kitchen at half-past five in the morning feeding and rocking his son back to sleep as the first early morning rays crept over the distant horizon, giving the room a half-awake feeling like the moments between dreams and reality before his ever-present feelings of anxiety and what-if came roaring back to the mid ground of his thoughts. 

But in that moment he was content, reveling in the chance at life he’d never thought he could have.


End file.
